Control, maintain and develop public parks, public gardens,
beaches and Caves of Barbados.

Develop and maintain public accesses to beaches (windows
to the sea).

Provide Lifeguard and Ranger services at such beaches
and parks as it sees fit.

Provide beach facilities as the need arises and to maintain
existing ones.

Develop a network of protected area, both marine and terrestrial.

Wednesday 20, August-2003
by STEPHEN RICHARDS

The National Conservation Commission (NCC) has begun a project to improve
Batts Rock Beach, St Michael. Major work began last week when a large
layer of sand was added to the surface of the area to combat years of
beach erosion and improve the beach’s appearance.

Acting general manager of the NCC, Mary Fields, said the
commission was “trying to rehabilitate that area by recapturing
the beach for recreational purposes”. She said the NCC would also
be adding more picnic tables on the beach. The project is part of a wider
plan “in the sense that we are looking at one or two beaches to
see where we can improve them, but that this was one of the bigger projects”.

Fields added that beachgoers “may have noticed as
well the young plants because we are going to revegetate that area. We
are planting beach yam and sea grape,” which the commission believes
will beautify and help combat the erosion on that beach.

“Cars used to travel on the western side of the
facility and now we are developing the area on the east side of the building
so cars won’t have to travel across the beach.

“We are also looking at paving it properly so we
won’t have traffic going right down to the beach where the recreational
area will be.People can park their cars and walk to the recreational
area,” Fields said.

Chairman of the NCC, Jenny Applewhaite, said the beach
improvement project was long overdue.

“I am glad that we can finally begin this project,
which is part of an overall plan to combat beach erosion and make the
beaches of Barbados the most irresistible in the Caribbean,” she
said.